“Finding the correct size of our team covering New York’s neighborhoods is an ongoing challenge, and today’s staff reductions were a difficult but necessary part of that process,” said a DNA spokesman.

“While our head count may have gone down, DNAinfo remains deeply committed to the important business of providing people with the most relevant and interesting neighborhood news and information while we connect merchants with the people who live and work in their neighborhoods.”

The local news and political site started in New York in 2009 and expanded to Chicago in 2012. Layoffs also hit Chicago, where two staff jobs were eliminated recently.

DNAinfo did not release any info on current head counts on its sites in the two cities.

The layoffs were reported earlier on Monday by Politico.

Ricketts, a Donald Trump supporter in the general election, is the founder and former CEO of TD Ameritrade, which he left in 2011 to concentrate full-time on entrepreneurship and philanthropy. The Ricketts family also owns the Chicago Cubs baseball team.